Vocalist Nathalie Pires will perform with Kansas City’s Ensemble Ibérica at the Kansas City Folk Festival held Sunday, Feb. 19, at the Westin Crown Center.

Kansas City Folk Festival is a gigantic concert. Here are some highlights.

Feb 9, 2017 at 1:43 PMBy Bill Brownlee Special to Ink

Kansas City Folk Festival

Sunday, Feb. 19, at the Westin Crown Center

Rise Up Singing (10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m., Century C ballroom), an unconventional “all-faiths sing-along,” will jump-start the Kansas City Folk Festival on Sunday morning at the Westin Crown Center. More than two dozen performances by musicians from Kansas City and around the globe will take place on six stages during the lively seven-hour musical carnival that concludes the annual Folk Alliance International conference.

Most participants, however, are intent on expanding the parameters of folk. Since emerging as a punk-inspired troubadour in the 1980s, Billy Bragg (4 p.m. - 4:45 p.m., Century C ballroom) has earned a devoted following for his strident politics. An outing by Ani Cordero (1 p.m. - 1:45 p.m., Century C ballroom), a New York based disciple of the slain Chilean singer-songwriter Victor Jara, is likely to be similarly vociferous. The octogenarian blues man Bobby Rush (3 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Liberty room) is devoted to more sensual concerns.

Folk doesn’t recognize borders. Baile an Salsa (3 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Century C ballroom) combine Latin dance music with the traditional sound associated with the band’s base in Galway. Joined by the vocalist Nathalie Pires, Kansas City’s Ensemble Ibérica (2 p.m. - 2:45 p.m., Liberty Room) will further demonstrate the folk’s boundless possibilities by exploring the music of Portugal.